Surgical Guides

Pre-Operative Instructions for outpatient surgery

General

Do not eat or drink anything for 8 hours prior to your operation. This includes water.

A shower using regular soap and water is recommended the night before or morning of surgery. Use of Hibiclens solution is preferred over soap (this can be purchased at Walgreens, CVS, Amazon, or any local pharmacy).

Please notify us as soon as possible if there is any change in your health prior to the operation such as a new illness.

Please notify our office as soon as possible if you need to cancel for any reason as a consideration to your physician, the place of operation, and to other patients.

Make sure you understand your operation. Please call the office if you have any last minute questions or need clarification about anything. You will also see your surgeon on the day of the operation to ask questions before you go to the operating room.

If you are having hip or knee replacement surgery, then please watch this video on YouTube.

Medications

Blood pressure medications if applicable should be taken with a small sip of water.

Anti-inflammatory medications such as Advil, Ibuprofen, Aleve, Motrin, and Aspirin should be discontinued 10 days prior to your operation. Tylenol can be taken up to the day of the operation.

If you are taking blood thinner medications (Coumadin or Warfarin, Plavix), please make sure your surgeon is aware of this and instructions have been given to you prior to proceeding with the operation. Failure to stop these medications may lead to cancellation of your surgery or result in bleeding complications during surgery.

Please bring a current list of your medications or the medications themselves on the day of surgery.

Day of Surgery

Make sure you know what time to arrive for surgery. You should receive a call from the place of surgery at least 1 day ahead of time. You will typically need to arrive 1-2 hours prior to the scheduled surgery time.

You will need someone to be with you on the day of surgery to provide transportation. You will not be able to drive yourself. Any specific post-operative instructions will be given to them as well.

If you are having outpatient surgery, then remember to bring equipment such as crutches and knee braces with you on the day of surgery. If you are having inpatient surgery, then the hospital case manager will make arrangements for any equipment you may need.

If you are having outpatient surgery, then plan to spend approximately one hour in the recovery room after your surgery. For inpatient surgery, you will spend some time in the recovery room before going to your hospital room.

We want you to be as comfortable as possible about your operation. Please contact our office for any additional questions you may have.

If you are having your operation at North Austin Surgery Center, then please go to: northaustinsurgerycenter.com - and click on the "See the What to Expect" section of the website for additional information on preparing for surgery.

Rehabilitation Guidelines

The following documents are PDF files. If you do not have the PDF software to be able to open and read these documents you can get it from the Adobe website

Post-Operative Instructions

Joint Replacement Surgery Frequently Asked Questions

We hear commonly asked questions prior to joint replacement surgery. Questions such as 'when can I drive again?', 'How long will I be in the hospital?', etc. Here are answers to those frequently asked questions.